One time, when I was a little bit desparate for some cash, I took a gig writing some ruby code for a nontechnical team. This team had a founder and a separate ceo.
In my first week, my gut told me the CEO was probabaly not going to be very effective. I couldn’t have told you why, it was just a gut feeling.
After a month or two, it became very obvious that the founder didn’t want to relinquesh control over the product, and the CEO was process oriented, to the point of vanity. The CEO was sort of a figurehead - responsible for the running of meetings and the taking of notes, and sort of responsible for closing new sales, although he was not an experienced sales person.
It turns out, my gut was right. The founder, while smart and driven, was not giving the CEO the level of autonomy to succeed in the role. And the CEO was not honest with himself or others about his ability to deliver growth.
The psychological ownership of his role wasn’t his - it was the founder’s. The founder sort of knew that he needed a CEO, and gave the CEO the rope to prove himself, but the CEO didn’t feel that he had that rope, that he could prove himself.
If I had to guess, I’d guess that the CEO came from corporate life at a larger company, where the rules and expectations are clearly laid out for you.
This is not an excuse for the founder - in fact, he’s at least partly to blame for his inabilty to define what he wanted in the role.
But, generally, it’s up to you to define your own role. If you don’t know what’s expected of you, figure it out for yourself. Turn any opportunity with your higher-ups into an interview, or even a sort of anthropoligical study. What do they SEEM to expect of you? Do they know that? Do they know the implications of those expectations? Discuss this with them. Do it candidly, respectfully, but firmly.
If you can figure out what’s expected of you, even when it’s ambiguous, and exceed those expectations, you’ll go places. If you can figure out how to deliver results regardless of your role, you’ll go places.
Define your own role